Unpleasant Emotions

The Struggle

In the sphere of
the emotions it is very useful to try to struggle with the habit of
giving immediate expression to all one′s unpleasant emotions. Many
people find it very difficult to refrain from expressing their
feelings about bad weather. It is still more difficult for people
not to express unpleasant emotions when they feel that something or
someone is violating what they may conceive to be order or justice.
Besides being a very good method for self-observation, the struggle
against expressing unpleasant emotions has at the same time another
significance. It is one of the few directions in which a man can
change himself or his habits without creating other undesirable
habits. Therefore self-observation and self-study must, from the
first, be accompanied by the struggle against the expression of
unpleasant emotions.

(Gurdjieff in Ouspensky′s In Search of the Miraculous.)

Osho suggests: share the positive, watch the negative:

Wait. When you are
angry, this is the moment to meditate. Don′t waste this moment anger
is creating such great energy in you - it can destroy. But energy is
neutral - the same energy that can destroy, can be creative. Wait.
The same energy that can shatter, can shower life - just wait.
Waiting and not doing anything in a hurry, one day you will be
surprised, seeing the inner change. You were full of anger, and then
anger goes on and on and comes to a climax... and then the wheel
turns. And you can see the wheel is turning, and the anger is
relaxing, and energy is released, and now you are in a positive mood
- the creative mood. Now you can do something. Now do. Always wait
for the positive.
And what I am saying is not repression. I am not saying to repress
the negative, I am saying watch the negative. Remember the
difference, tremendous difference is there. I am not saying sit on
top of the negative, forget the negative, do something against it -
no. I am not saying that. I am not saying when you are angry, smile
- no; that smile is false, ugly, phoney. Don′t smile when you are
angry. Then close the room, keep a mirror in front of you, see your
angry face yourself. There is no need to show it to anybody else. It
is your business, it is your energy, it is your life, and you have
to wait for the right moment.